Demon to replace 10 discs on error-strewn Dead Or Alive box set

Demon Music have investigated the errors on the recently issued Dead Or Alive box set and will replace more than half the discs in the Sophisticated Boom Box to fans who request replacements….
You can read the detail around the fixes below (taken from this post on Demon’s website) and the process for getting replacement discs is also laid out.

Demon’s statement:

Dead Or Alive ‘Sophisticated Boom Box MMXVI’

We have carefully read through all of the comments and e-mails we have received, and we are now in the process of rectifying all issues that were raised. To ensure that the changes we have made are correct, we have enlisted the help of an expert to act as a second pair of eyes and ears, and are satisfied the changes below address the issues that have been highlighted.

Thank you for the feedback – it is appreciated.

Demon will be offering replacement discs of 8CDs and 2DVDs to all customers who e-mail to the following e-mail address deadoralive@optimal-media.com

This is the process:

Subject line of the e mail should be ‘Dead Or Alive’

If you have purchased more than one copy and need multiple replacements, please write the number in the subject line, for instance “Dead or Alive x 2”

Customers to not write anything in the body of the e-mail apart from their name and full postal address including post code/zip code

Each e-mail will be responded to with a confirmation

The replacement discs will be ready to ship from the 28/11/2016

Optimal (the manufacturer) will ship the packages via DHL/UPS and they estimate a delivery time of 2-3 days depending on location

Below are the issues that were identified and the actions that have been taken:-

Disc 1 – Sophisticated Boom Boom – CD1

Track 1 – ‘I’d Do Anything’
Issue – Finishes with an extra “do do do” which sounds odd on play back.

We have corrected this error and are remanufacturing this disc

Disc 2 – Sophisticated Boom Boom – CD2

Track 5 – ‘What I Want’ (1984 Dance Mix)
Issue – Plays the same as Track 2 ‘Original Dance Mix’. Upon seeking advice from an expert we have now corrected this and will re-manufacture this disc

Track 9 – ‘That’s The Way I Like It’ (Dub)
Issue – plays the same as Track 12 – ‘Keep That Body Strong (That’s The Way)’.

Despite being extremely similar, these versions are different. We understand that the (Dub Version) was an earlier version of ‘Keep That Body Strong’. From a historical perspective, we are keeping this in place.

We have corrected the mono error and are remanufacturing this disc
Track 4 – My Heart Goes Bang [American WIPE-OUT Mix] should actually be listed as an ‘Edit’. The full length mix has never been released on CD, however at present we are unable to source a master with the full, unedited 6:45 duration.
Issue – Track 8 – You Spin Me Round [Big Ben Mix] – We were supplied an analogue tape by Sony. We believe the chimes may have been lifted from another source and edited to create this unique mix at the time of production.

Disc 6 – Mad, Bad, And Dangerous To Know – CD1

Issue – There is an awkward gap between ‘Then There Was You’ and ‘Come Inside’ on the original album sequence.
Issue – ‘Brand New Lover’ (Edit) appears to be slower than any other version.

The segue between Tracks 4 & 5 has been fixed and we are remanufacturing this disc
We have sourced a replacement master for ‘Brand New Lover’ (Edit)

Disc 8 – Rip It Up – CD1

Issue – Track 13 ‘Something In My House’ (Short Version) should be an edit of the album version but plays the 7″ remix.

We have sourced a replacement master of the 3.57 “7” short version” and we are remanufacturing this disc

Steve Coy included this version of ‘Fan The Flame’, as it was previously unreleased and acts as an opening prelude for the album, which was re-sequenced. Track 1 now segues seamlessly into Track 2 ‘Unhappy Birthday’, which was the original Track 2 on the 1990 Japanese release.

Disc 14 – Nukleopatra – CD2

Issue – Tracks 1 and 6 ‘Rebel Rebel’ are exactly the same (they should be different mixes).
Issue – Track 12 should be ‘International Thing’ (NU-NRG 12″ Remix) but plays the album version.

Track 6 is ‘The Hole Mix’, whereas Track 1 is an earlier shorter version of that mix. Track 1 and 6 are identical up until 6:10-ish. Track 1 has an “UGH!” at this point and ends abruptly. Track 6 has no “UGH!”, and starts to fade out instead… so they’re the same mixes, with very slight differences to the endings.

We have sourced a replacement master of the 7.02 ‘International Thing’ (NU-NRG 12″ Remix) and we are remanufacturing this disc

Disc 18 and 19 – DVD 1 & 2

Issues – Cropped, freezing issues.

We have gone back to the source masters and fixed all of these issues and are re-authoring these discs.

We would also like to highlight that in the process of putting together this set we have used the Sony and Steve Coy masters. There are no MP3s and vinyl rips used.

So now I’m wondering, since I ordered from Amazon US, does this mean that my shipment (which hasn’t gone out yet) is going to be delayed until the problems are fixed and I’ll have a proper box with all the corrected discs, or am i going to need to mail in for replacements still once Amazon US finally get and ships their stock? (I’m hoping they’ll just wait until there are corrected boxes rather than shipping me something they know I’m going to have to get replacements for.

Any news on how this is going to affect US Amazon stock of the box, Paul?

Don’t really know. Bound to take a while I would have thought. In your position I’d be more inclined to hope it comes sooner rather than later and get the replacement discs. The only good reason not to do this is if you want to keep the box sealed (with corrected discs).

What a disaster this must be costing them a fortune! what made me laugh was enlisted the help of an expert to be a second pair of ears and eyes which begs the question why on earth did they not do that in the first place! hopefully a valuable lesson learned here!

Paul – this set is absolutely riddled with problems. Of course they should fix it – but this piecemeal method, over so many discs, will undoubtedly mean bad sets will remain in the market place.

I certainly can appreciate why people are praising the label for their response – but on the other hand, what a complete cluster f***. My goodness, while it’s good a label fixes errors, the sheer number on this set beggars belief, and illustrates just how slapdash it’s production and release was.

Sorry – but replacing discs is all well and good, but someone was asleep at the wheel, and there’s really no excuse for errors on this scale. Buying this set today is like playing the lottery – I’m sorry, it’s beyond ridiculous.

SHows how much they care? Are you serious? If they cared enough, errors across all these discs would never have happened in the first place. This isn’t a sign of tender loving care, it’s a sign of a slapdash release that the label is now scrambling to salvage.

Let me put it this way – If you bought a package of 12 batteries, and it turned out 10 of them were dead on arrival, would you praise Duracell for replacing the dead ones? No. You’d get a refund and buy Energizer.

Hi Paul,
just to let you know that only for TODAY, Friday 4th of November 2016, AMAZON ITALY is giving 10€ of discount for a purchase of at least 50€.
You have to use GRAZIE1000 as promo code on check out.
This code is valid only once for items sold and shipped by amazon italy, and is not valid for books, digital contents, babies items, gift vouchers and warehouse deals.

This sounds like a good approach to me. No-one is happy with faulty product, neither the consumers who suffer disappointment, nor the producer who ends up losing money as a result of the faults.
But to get this kind of concrete assessment of the problems and clear explanation (especially mixes that sound the same to most people but actually are in fact a little different and don’t necessarily need replacing) makes all the difference. I really would love this approach to be used for a lot more items, rather than just sweeping the problems under the carpet and hoping no-one will notice.
I repeat that I haven’t bought this set, but have been closely following the whole story because of my own experiences with other faulty product, and just to get acknowledgement and a clear outline of the problems is very heartening and the producer is to be commended for this.
When it comes down to it, none of us want to be complaining nag-nags. We just want to buy a problem-free version of what was promised to us.
Rectifying these problems, when they occur, ultimately make us more loyal to the brands, so I have sincere hopes that the faults will be repaired and that we can have faith in the people that are producing the music that we all love so much.
Roll on lots more FAULT FREE deluxe re-issues (but if you make mistakes, own up to them and fix the problem, that’s all we ask!!!)

At least Edsel have listened; admitted the mistakes and are correcting them – please let this be an end to the complaining and nit-picking. Problems happen all the time, in this case they’re being addressed. I look to forward to receiving the corrected discs to make this outstanding set as good as it it can be. Well done Edsel, but I’m sure we’ll all agree that Paul and SDE have had a pretty large part in this being addressed so quickly AND to the extent is is being sorted. Another sign that SDE and your good self, Paul, are are listened to :)

I’m glad they’ve sorted this, and as Edward said, quite why they did use a second pair of eyes and ears in the first place is bizarre!
Let’s hope that they continue to do that for other projects.

A bit of background for me. I used to work for a reissue label back in the mid-late 1990s, not once that exists any more. They sourced lots of their output from vinyl rips and I was the ostensive librarian, cataloguing what they owned. I would not have known if there were rare alternative versions on singles, foreign pressings etc as their music was mainly of genres I was not remotely interested in. After a while they did get someone in on a freelance basis, to write sleeve notes and so on, and he really knew his stuff and could help me sort of which version of a track was which. It surely can not be that engage people like that.

A theoretical scenario;
I know reissues can often get cancelled over rights issues, but surely it would simple enough to set up a post on social media, saying; “We’re planning to reissue such and such an album. What tracks/mixes do fans want to see on it to be totally comprehensive?”. You’d quickly tap into some fan experts, then it could be up the label if they wanted to contact those people off line to do some sort of quality control once they’d sourced everything.

Isn’t there a process for making sure problems like this don’t happen? Oh yeah, it’s called manufacturing an acetate disc to ensure everything is correct! Seriously. Even though I did not buy this box or have any plans to, it’s just common sense that if you’re going to issue a box set this big (or not matter the size), you’re going to do some quality control first before the product goes out and at least have someone who knows and has knowledge of the tracks contained on the discs. At least Demon are correcting the error, but it could have been prevented early in the stages of prepping the box set. Due diligence goes a long way.

Good on them for resolving the matter. Yes, they should have had a second pair of ears to listen to this set in the first place, but that was a common suggestion when the errors started to be reported, so kudos to them for swallowing their pride and taking the suggestions of fans. Hopefully this will be a learning lesson for them. Obviously they didn’t learn from the Thompson Twins debacle but, considering this was a mammoth box set and it was released after Pete Burns’ death, this has been a huge PR disaster for them. They are going to have to win back the confidence of music buyers. It will be interesting to see how they move forward from this.

While I am still waiting for my box to arrive in NYC, I am glad to know this has been sorted out.
I don’t mind waiting for the replacements as long as they do the right thing and it seems they truly are.

i have no interest in dead or alive, but i notice there have been accusations of mp3s being used as masters. this label have been using mp3s to press cds for years and aggressively deny it despite it being fact – they simply don’t know what they’re doing (or don’t care).

I do hope for the best with these new discs, but I’m a natural skeptic. Did they actually resolve all the issues listed in a proper way? A few users on Edsel’s FB page said they found numerous tracks were sourced from what was at one point MP3. Edsel states no MP3s were used, but they may not be aware of some of the original sources. I guess once the replacements are sent, we will see what the new feedback is. I do hope Edsel learned something from this but I’m sure they’ve cause increased damage to their reputation. Perhaps they can turn that around with a string of flawless releases in the future.

I’m impressed with the way Edsel are resolving this issue. I like how they’re not making us jump through hoops to get the replacement discs. Just waiting on the original set to drop in my Oregon Mailbox – and having seen the pics of it online I can’t wait!

My original order was delayed (Nov 25, according to the Base.com e-mail) so I might be getting an error-free re-press, but I’ve sent off a request just in case. Considering the replacements are being released AFTER the date I’ve been given, I don’t know what I’m getting.

That is why I’m confused – the e-mail was sent BEFORE the original release date (and before the errors were discovered), so I don’t know if the ‘new’ date refers to new stock/pressing or original stock/pressing.

Anyway…..to cut my rambling post short – I don’t know what’s happening, so I’m ordering replacements. I don’t want to wait another month or so to see whether I need them or not – if I leave it too long, I could miss out.

Yes I have. When I put ‘Dead or Alive’ in the subject headline I received nothing, but when I put ‘Dead or Alive Replacement’ in the subject headline I received this message from them:

‘Thanks for your e mail. Due to the huge response we cannot reply to each
and every mail. Please be assured we have your details and replacement
disc packages will start shipping week commencing 28th November 2016.’

I’m very happy to see that edsel made their best to correct the faulty CDs and to answer to each point they’ve been asked to. Tha’ts a very good point !

But, let’s face it : 10 out of 19 Cds replacement is very big! I think they have to do something to avoid these kind of issues afterwards… I Think in this particular case, they lost many of the money they should have earned ,and that is not good for them…

You know if Pete was still with us he would be absolutely fuming at all this mess….he’s turning in his grave now saying “Right you lot of F*****# idiots sort this out now or some heads are gonna roll”.

I received my box today and was lucky enough to get one of the signed photo editions, I’m in awe of the presentation and sound. Now to read Demon are willing to correct these errors is the icing on the cake (and eat it) – thanks so much for keeping us posted, Paul.

I am afraid it has been proven time and time again that if people don’t get in such a whirl, things like this do not get corrected (or not as fully). Good on the label for their forward and open response, but equally good on the consumer for rightfully raising cain and speaking out. In my limited & sheltered experience, one thing typically doesn’t happen without the other.

So stoked with Demon/Edsel. What they are doing is above and beyond what I expected. Bought a Beach Boys box set that has a major mastering error on every track of one disc. There’s a two second gap at the start of every song and the last two seconds of the final song are missing. Still waiting to hear from UMe. It’s been over two years, I ‘ve tried every method of contact (still sending them emails or tweets every two months or so) and have been ignored. Very poor service considering they did a repress. If anyone can help me get through to someone above their customer service email “contact us” buttons it would be greatly appreciated.

This reminds me of the fiasco with Roger Taylor’s box set entitled “The Lot”. Then there is also the issue with the latest vinyl box set by and from FREE. If they offered a new correct box for FREE I think I would keep my old one just to show that the record companies apparently can’t do their job without there being mistakes. Sad.

I’m glad they’re replacing these but there’s a mistake when it comes to the Rebel Rebel mix. The CD states it’s meant to be the 12″ Extended Mix, and it isn’t, it’s an edit of The Hole Mix as they confirm above. So PLEASE PLEASE source the ACTUAL 12″ Extended Mix instead, which is only available on promo vinyl. This is the mix that is supposed to be on there!

Now that they have taken responsibility for the mistakes on this set can we see the Robert Palmer CDs being reissued from listenable quality masters? (As you can tell I’m still upset by that – 3 emails they ignored – and this proves they can listen!)

Pete is correct. I bought the Rebel Rebel 12″ promo, which arrived today, to check about the mix. The 12″ Extended mix is indeed different to what’s on the box set. It’s like the album version but longer and has flamenco guitars at the beginning and towards the end.

Regarding the Rebel Rebel 12″ Extended Mix, I confirm by listening to the one on the box, that it is definitely not the correct 12″ Extended Mix which was on the promo 12″. This extended mix was the extended of the radio edit, and was never released on cd. So that was a high expectation for fans to have it on cd on this anthology.

The mix track 1 on cd2 for Nukleopatra, is definitely not the Extended mix, it is an alternative mix of the Hole mix, which is totally different from the original extended 12″ mix.

I truely think the correct extended 12″ mix was the one expected for this anthology.

Speaking of the “Nukleopatra” disc, I got my box…and I noticed something was missing which I’m not sure people are aware…the full-length 7+ minute version of the song “Nukleopatra” is missing on the box!! It’s only on the Japanese Epic/Sony version as Track 1, but nowhere else…what happened to it??

Just got a slightly humorous email from Amazon updating my expected delivery date to anywhere between 25 Nov and early next year. Tells me their purging stock and forcing the label to replenish. Reassuring that Amazon are apparently not taking this lightly either.

It is good to hear that Demon starts a reproduction of the discs and it seems
that they have now help from experts.
That’s why I think that your website Paul is enormously important for us !
But i hope they have LEARNED from that disaster for the future
and take needful care for forthcoming Deluxe Editions and Box Sets.

Hats off to Edsel I say for sorting this out so quickly. OK, it maybe shouldn’t have happened in the first place, but I think it’s great that the label seem committed to putting things right. I didn’t have freezing issues with the dvds, but the picture quality wasn’t up to much, I hope they’ve managed to improve them.

I’m glad Demon/Edsel is replacing 10 discs! But I don’t like that they are losing big money on this. I just hope they did the quality control in advance instead of putting the boxes out & found out from the fans/buyers.

I was planning to cancel my pre-order. But I’ll wait for it to arrive first then I’ll ask for the replacements. I agree with others to get the replacements you’ll have some of proof that you re-ordered/bought this box.

ALL 3 Something In My House 7″ on the box set are the same. US wipe Out Mix 7″, Remix, Short Version on Rip It Up Disc 2 have the same intro. This is crazy that only one edit is being addressed. The short edit does not have the thunderstorm intro. The LV version on the USA promo 7″ isn’t even on the tracklisting but now maybe is being added. But the other 2 will still be identical. Whomever is their expert should consult with collectors who actually know the mixes.

Oh and please listen to Keep That Body Strong Thats The Way and hear the ending of That’s The Way Dance Mix outro fade over the intro of Keep That Body Strong. Can we say Cherry Pop edit anyone? The original is clean no other track banded to it. And was the vocal missing for My Heart Goes Bang 2000 mix on Fragile, so the decision was made to use the Youthquake vocal to replace it? At least put the vocal in the mix instead of it floating above the track. Unbelievable this all is. I sent an email to correct the confusion regarding Rebel Rebel and no reply.

Ah ha! So it turns out they did use the 2007 remaster I did for Cherry Red for their box set. I suspected as much, and I’m sure they used more, if not all of the tracks from that CD on the box. Hmmm, maybe I should ask for a credit in the next pressing of the box. Kidding!

When someone said they believed they took all the previously available tracks from existing CDs, I can’t say I was surprised. Edsel has had a problem in the past paying for a new bake and transfer of master tapes, so when they say “from master tapes”, the are being sneaky at times because it’s their roundabout way of saying they were from master tapes at one point. And I guess I can reveal that when I remastered Sophisticated Boom Boom for Cherry Red, I did not get the chance to use master tapes myself. The base album tracks were re-tweaked from the U.S. CD and ALL of the bonus tracks I remastered from my vinyl collection. Could you tell? It’s my specialty.

So what you’re saying Scott is that we have been ripped off and lied to? And what do you mean by ‘re-tweaked’? Did you put an equalizer and booster on the tracks did you? If that was the case, I already have the US Cd of SBB and ALL the bonus tracks in my own vinyl collection, so I wasted money buying the so-called remastered edition. What a scam.

So, what you are trying to say is after 10 years of this CD being satisfying , suddenly you feel ripped off by the revelation of the source material? Guess what, if I hadn’t done it, it would have been a flat transfer of the U.S. CD as was, and a bunch of crackly, crunchy vinyl played with a bad stylus, such as the label’s reputation was at the time. I prevented it from being a disaster. At that time, Cherry Red were not much for working from masters but after I shared with them various posts online about quality concerns about their products at the time, they have been much improved at sourcing from masters, though not 100%, in recent years.

And you should also be aware that quite a few labels, major and indie, will source from previously existing CDs rather than pull the tapes out again, and advertise it as “Remastered”, even if they haven’t actually made any changes. It’s nothing new and will not be stopping anytime soon, I suspect. At least I made the efforts to actually “Remaster” everything. And that’s much more than a little EQ and volume boost. I guarantee you I’ve put more time into remastering a single project than probably any other sound engineer out there, pro and freelance. I definitely prefer to work from new master transfers, and have had that privilege on a couple of recent projects. But it’s not always an option, for one reason or another.

A good resolution to the issue. I’ll end up with a box set that is correct. Having to send an email to receive replacement discs is less effort than making a cuppa. Nice work on hbd part of SDE and Edsel.

Keezy, the 7″ US Wipe-Out mix of Something In My House is different at the end, it changes at 3.33. BUT you appear to be correct about Keep That Body Strong! You can hear how it should start clean here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqpHjLsZ4j0

It’s basically the Dub version of That’s The Way (I Like It) without the hi-hat 3 beat count in.

Oh well I’ve been enjoying the box for a week now. When the replacement discs come in I’ll play those 10 start to finish and then when the vinyl box arrives late december I’ll play those start to finish as well. Looks like I’ll stay in this “Dead or Alive vibe” at least well into january 2017.

This must be a very expensive and valuable lesson for Edsel but in the end we’ll have a box that is as perfect as can be AND I even received the signed print with the box that I ordered exactly 2 weeks ago.

I only needed to send a mail and if all goes well I will now automatically receive no less than 10 replacement discs for my box so I don’t see any reason to complain.

Well spotted on the “My Heart Goes Bang 2000″ mix now using the Original Vocals. My guess for this is that it is deliberate by Pete / Steve who perhaps thought the Original Vocal was better than the Re-Record.
Of course the original Fragile album due to copyright issues needed everything to be re-recorded as Remixes would’ve needed royalities going to Sony, whereas with this box set being a Sony/Steve Coy licensed set perhaps the same copyrights don’t apply as Sony will get a royalty from the set anyway.
Unless of course the demos for the Fragile album used the original vocals to build the music track around and the vocals were later re-recorded, making this track also an accidental inclusion…

Thanks for your e mail. Due to the huge response we cannot reply to each
and every mail. Please be assured we have your details and replacement
disc packages will start shipping week commencing 28th November 2016.

Well, strictly speaking it’s Optimal Media, the replicators, who are mailing the discs out not Edsel/Demon.

….

Corrected complete sets should be stickered so there’s no doubt for new buyers that they’re getting a corrected set. I wonder what will happen to all the retailer/etailer returned stock? Will they disassemble them, replace the defective discs, re-seal them and sell them as new meaning the likes of Amazon will be getting stock back in December they returned to Demon in November!

The expense of this must be staggering so I daresay it’ll be a while before we see it discounted a la the Nanas Singles box.

Here’s below what a people from Demon music answered to me few days ago.
********************************************************************************
Hello,
Yes the new stock will be the fixed version. No more boxes that are incorrect are going out to any retailers.

We are in the process of fixing the vinyl, so that too will be new stock that is free of errors.

I agree with you. And while this is not one of my fav. DOA albums, the title track was the best thing they had done in ages. It is almost criminal that it was never released as a single. It should have been. They definitely should have put the FULL-LENGTH version on here, along with the Glam mixes (which I think are superior to the DOA mixes) of “Sex Drive” and the remixed version of “Unhappy Birthday” that was on the Japanese CD, among others. Maybe they are holding off because they are going to re-release “Nukleopatra” by itself one day and will then add the extra MISSING tracks. I doubt I will want to spend any more money on that though.

Just received the replacement discs.
I can confirm that they actually sent out 11 discs. BUT: Instead of replacing Disc 12 – Fan the Flame Part 1 they put in Disc 2 of “Nude”! Why that? And are we not getting Fan the Flame Part 1 replaced, as stated on the Demon Website? I already contacted Demon/Edsel and also Optimal Media about this. Let’s hope they can stop sending out the wrong discs!

I haven’t listened to the discs yet, of course, but put in the first DVD to have a short check. Well, the picture improved a bit, but is far from being perfect. Also, now they changed the aspect ratio of the videos that look “squeezed” in the original version, like “Brand New Lover”. It is now changed to 16:9 instead of 4:3, as it was intended. Clearly, the people who did the authoring never saw the original version! Also, there are still those strange “cuts” at the beginning of some of the videos, where the sound and picture start 1 or 2 seconds into the song. Seems we never get a perfect version of the videos, although the ones on youtube and VEVO even look and sound better…
Seems this whole set is truly cursed… :-(

Oh wow, I already received an answer from Demon/Edsel!
Here it is:
“Many thanks for contacting Demon Music Group.

Steve Coy included this version of ‘Fan The Flame’, as it was previously unreleased and acts as an opening prelude for the album, which was re-sequenced so we made the decision to leave the track as was intended by Steve Coy and so replacements for this disc were not made.
For Nude CD2, concerns were brought to our attention regarding the sound quality of ‘Baby Don’t Say Goodbye [extended mix]’ which we have fixed, hence the replacement CD of Nude CD2.
We hope this helps.”

I answered them that this will cause quite some confusion, as they state on their website that “Fan the Flame – Part 1″ will be replaced, and not “Nude”. And that they said the track will be segued into track two on that disc. They also answered to this:

“Please accept our apologies. This was our intention but upon investigation, the segueway didn’t work.

As the track was wasn’t supposed to be segued into anything (as its context is as a live track), we made the decision to keep the disc as it was.

This should have been updated on the website which we can only apologise for. It has now been updated.”

So they changed the text on their news page now.

Paul, to at least stop people complaining about all this and bombarding Demon with even more angry mails, maybe you should put a short explanation on your main page clearing up this confusion. So at least the readers of SDE will know what’s going on and what is the reason for the “Nude disc 2″ sent out instead of “Fan the flame – Part 1″.

It seems that this update indicated there were FURTHER mistakes than they had noted in their original update, where they touched on all the errors that were brought to light by us fans, and then we got that initial update saying all the things that were gonna be fixed, how to email for replacements, and when they would go out… and that there would be 8 CDs and 2 DVD replacements. Now this second update lists more issues, some which were fixed, some not… but the part I am having trouble understanding is where those mistakes also caught before they pressed the replacement discs that just shipped out or do we need to contact them a SECOND time for ANOTHER set of updated corrected CDs? Perhaps I missed the answer and it is staring me right in the face…???

It occured to them BEFORE pressing and sending out the replacement discs. I received my package today, and there’s 11 discs in it, and ALL those problems listed on their news post that they were promising to “repair” are cleaned up. So, no need to request another set of replacement discs. The package they are sending out includes all fixing!

This doesn’t mean there are still flaws in it, of course (read my comment concerning the DVD). But, I think this is as much as they could do without losing too much time. And I think it’s quite a lot. Please note I’m not making excuses for anybody here. It shouldn’t have happened first time round.

No, I’m from Germany. That’s why I already received the CD’s, as the pressing plant “Optimal Media” is located in the eastern part of Germany and the replacement discs are directly sent from there. So we Germans have the advantage of much faster postal running times (usually it arrives the next day, as in my case).
You might have to wait for it to arrive in the UK for longer than a week, though. It’s my experience when I order CD’s from the UK. They usually need around 7 – 14 days to arrive here. Only exception is amazon.co.uk, who are much quicker, because they usually send their stuff from the german amazon locations (although they charge postage and packing like it was sent from the UK, bastards!).

Mine arrived this morning and I have to say Rip It Up sounds amazing. Will drive my Husband round the bend later with the rest of the corrected CDs. Fingers and everything else crossed for the vinyl edition. Have to say, the T Rex and Suede vinyl box sets really could’ve been executed with a little more style but fingers crossed.

Truly amazing & bizarre how this has all happened. If Nostradamus has somehow predicted this, then I’ll be a monkey’s uncle.

Several thoughts. It feels like a watershed moment for all labels. I can’t imagine any of them will ever permit something like this to happen again (or I’ll be proven dead wrong in a week, one or the other). Kudos to the online community who responded so quickly in such detailed fashion when the first sets shipped. I know it’s just a silly box set, but nice to see action and reaction taking place. Yes, we were listened to and taken at our word!! Tribute to Pete and the group members that so many people care, especially considering how long it took to get such a project out in the open to begin with (which is still the real crime). Best of all, proves the physical media market is still alive & strong for the forseeable future as Demon otherwise would have certainly just thrown in the towel being faced with such a financial boondoggle.

In Massachusetts… still awaiting my replacement discs. Getting annoyed at this whole process, but I guess I shall try to remain patient, as it seems some of you in the US have now received them. Did they come via USPS or UPS or FedEx, etc.???